Due to a family emergency that took owner David Liu out of state, his tiny pancake stand in Flushing, Queens, named A Crepe, won’t reopen until early March.
Liu, who lives in Flushing, had to lay off workers due to the pandemic and is now the only person working there. And in addition to his family concerns, Liu is grappling with a business crisis involving DoorDash.
“I almost went mad. “Oh my God, what’s going on? Liu said.
Liu said he couldn’t believe his eyes, when he checked his bank account on January 19 and noticed that DoorDash, the food delivery service that exploded in popularity during the pandemic, had made nine withdrawals. that day, totaling $ 46,700.
Liu is not comfortable speaking English, so he asked his business partner, Eric Leung, to describe how alarmed he felt when he noticed that all this money that could have paid for food and rent had been withdrawn.
“Basically all of the profits and sales made by A Crape in the past two months have been wiped out,†Leung explained. “So the money that we made, DoorDash just took it out of our accounts without our permission or knowledge. “
Leung says that since DoorDash had access to their account number, the company simply performed an automated transfer or ACH to withdraw funds from the account.
However, business partners claim that despite repeated attempts to clarify the situation with the company, they have not received a clear explanation of the terms of service for the services they allegedly violated.
In a recent email, dated February 23, a Door Dash merchant support representative responded:
“You have been identified as violating our terms of use. Although you can continue to contact us, you will not be reactivated.
“Additionally, we have withdrawn payments for funds acquired during the time your store violated the terms of service, and we will not refund the funds,†the response continued.
In the meantime, with rent owed and bills owed, business partners say they are grateful that Bank of America was able to help them recover about $ 30,000 of funds withdrawn by DoorDash. Yet they claim they still owe more than $ 15,000.
The men said they plan to see a lawyer this weekend, but also plan to sever all ties with DoorDash once this situation is resolved.
“We’ve generated tons of income and tons of fees for them,†says Leung, “and the fact that they’re treating us like that is not only absurd, it’s quite insulting.â€
A spokesperson initially told NY1 on Wednesday afternoon that the company was investigating the matter and said they would get back to us as soon as possible. On Thursday afternoon, a DoorDash spokesperson released a statement saying they had identified “fraudulent activity” with the account.
“DoorDash always strives to ensure that we provide the best quality of service, especially at a time when every order counts,†the statement said. “Upon investigation, we have identified fraudulent activity associated with this account. We will work directly with the merchant on a solution and we remain committed to supporting and protecting our community.â€